The most common time to get by a tick is during the summer months, mainly because this is the main time to be outdoors. The worst thing about tick bites is the fact that ticks are known to carry several different types of diseases, the most popular being lyme disease. Your chances of getting lyme disease, or any other disease that ticks can carry, are pretty low. Nonetheless, you are probably interested in learning about some of the things that you can do to prevent a tick bite from happening to begin with, as well as what to do if you notice that one does bite you.
How Do Ticks Bite You?
The way that a tick bites is more or less by leeching onto you. They penetrate your skin, and then attach themselves to you. Many times, they will begin to bury themselves into your skin before you are able to find them. Since they are blood suckers, when ticks bite you, their main goal is to suck your blood. They will continue to suck your blood until they have been removed from your skin. This is the reason that tick removal is so important.
How Can You Prevent a Tick Bite?
If you want to avoid ticks altogether, the most important thing that you will need to do is avoid highly wooded or grassy areas, as this is where ticks like to hang out. However, you may still be interested in going hiking, camping or just being outdoors. There are a number of things that you can do to prevent a tick from biting you. One of the most important things is making sure that you dress appropriately. Wearing clothing that covers you completely will offer you the most protection. It is also recommended that you opt for light clothing, so that you will be able to see ticks if they do happen to get onto your body. Checking areas that your entire body, including your head and genital areas, is a main key to making sure that a tick has not bitten you.
How Do You Remove a Tick?
One common misconception used to be that you should remove ticks by taking a match to the skin. Not only can this be extremely dangerous, but you will probably not even have luck removing the tick from your body. The best way to remove a tick is to use a pair of tweezers. You should get as close to the skin as you possibly can and pull the tick out. If you cannot get all of the mouth parts out of the skin, you should not worry about it too much. Though it is possible for it to cause a minor infection, it will typically fall out on its own. When you are done removing the tick, you may want to use rubbing alcohol to help prevent infection. If you are really unsure of what you should do to remove a tick, you may want to consider visiting the doctor and having him or her do it. Saving the tick and having it tested at a lab to make sure that it is not a carrier of disease is often a good idea.
